Teresa Williams thought she landed her dream job in Iron Mountain, Michigan, becoming the first female officer in the history of the rural town’s police department.
But she was relentlessly harassed and assaulted during her four-and-a-half year tenure there and ultimately forced to resign, according to a federal lawsuit Williams filed last month against three officers in the Iron Mountain Police Department.
Within weeks of being hired in October 2017, she said she was forced to make out with her direct supervisor at a bar, according to the suit. The supervisor and Williams’ former patrol partner also bet on who could have sex with her first, the suit said.
“I want to see somebody step in and take action — like hold these people accountable,” she told NBC News on Thursday. “Just because you wear a badge and you’re a cop, it doesn’t mean you’re above the law. It doesn’t mean you get to treat people however you want and break the law and do whatever you want.”
Williams, 35, also spoke of Iron Mountain, a tight-knit community of about 7,500 residents in the Upper Peninsula that borders Wisconsin.
“I want, especially the community of Iron Mountain to know, that I’m doing this because they have the right to know … what and who it is they have that is supposed to be protecting and serving them,” she said.
‘It’s just appalling that these individual officers are able to act with such impunity’
The lawsuit alleges sexual harassment, sexual discrimination, a hostile work environment and retaliation. Named as defendants are the department’s top two supervisors, Ed Mattson, director of police and fire services, and Joseph Dumais, deputy director of police services. Garth Budek, Williams’ former patrol partner, is the third officer who is a defendant. Also named as defendants are the city and its police department.
Gregory Grant, an attorney who represents all defendants in the lawsuit, said in a Thursday statement: “I am unable to provide any…
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